Canada’s New Tax Exemption on Regulated Therapy Services | Ep 133

Fearless Practice

Today we are celebrating that Registered Counselling Therapists and Registered Psychotherapists no longer have to charge tax!

There are decades of work behind the scenes to bring this to fruition, so it is a big deal! Thank you to the CCPA for making this happen!

In this podcast episode, I’ll give you all the information about what this means and what you should do next so that you’re in the loop and on the right track.

In this Episode:

• Who doesn’t have to charge tax anymore?

• What does this mean?

• Addressing the change with clients

Who doesn’t have to charge tax anymore?

Last month in June 2024, Bill C59 received royal ascend and that means that GST and HST can successfully be removed from counselling and psychotherapy services in provinces that regulate the profession.

What does this mean?

What this means for therapists across Canada is that if you are in a province that regulates psychotherapy or counselling therapy, which includes;

• Ontario

• Quebec

• New Brunswick

• Nova Scotia

• Prince Edward Island

You no longer have to charge tax on therapy services! However, if you are certified in an unregulated province, it can be a little tricky. You may or may not be able to take tax off of your services, because it depends on if you have the relevant qualifications with a regulated province, what your provinces rules are specifically, and other factors.

‘So before taking off tax in an unregulated province, you will want to speak to your MPs [and] to the board where you are certified just to make sure that you can legally do that.’ - Julia Smith

The CCPA is still advocating for those unregulated provinces so that Canadian Certified Counsellors (CCC) may become included in not having to charge tax anymore, because this is currently not the case.

No matter what, you should still contact the CRA to discuss your individual situation on whether or not to deregister your HST or GST number. Click here to find the CRA link!

Addressing the change with clients

Are you going to take the tax off of your therapy fee? Or are you going to keep the therapy fee the same and give yourself a little bit of a raise? There’s no judgment if you do decide to go with the latter, since inflation has been tough these last few years.

First and foremost, you may want to put yourself in your client’s shoes because by not taking the tax off your fee and keeping it the same - depending on how you word it - your clients may not appreciate that, especially since for them it has also been difficult with inflation and rising costs.

‘If you do decide to give yourself a raise, you want to explain to your clients why you are doing this, so that they understand and can respect it!’ - Julia Smith

Some therapists may not tell the clients that they are doing this because the final fee includes the tax in the price, so the tax could be removed without the clients noticing. But by not informing your clients of the change, it may bring up big issues in the therapeutic alliance if a client finds it out and feels cheated or lied to, so being transparent is usually the best route!

In my private practice, we’ve decided to pass the benefits to our clients.

With Jane App, it is super simple to do to change this feature!

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Resources Mentioned and Useful Links:

Ep 132: Destin Jones: Creating Canadian Therapist Communities | EP 132

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Article: How to Set Up a Canadian Private Practice Website

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Canada Revenue Agency

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